Product Description
Howard Hawks is the first major biography of one of Hollywood's greatest directors, a filmmaker of incomparable versatility whose body of work includes the landmark gangster film Scarface, screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and His Girl Friday, the Bogart-Bacall classics To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep, the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and aviation classics and Westerns like The Dawn Patrol and Rio Bravo. Sometime partner of the eccentric Howard Hughes, drinking buddy of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, an inveterate gambler and a notorious liar, Hawks was the most modern of the great masters and one of the first directors to declare his independence from the major studios. He played Svengali to Lauren Bacall, Montgomery Clift, and others, but Hawks's greatest creation may have been himself. As The Atlantic Monthly noted, "Todd McCarthy . . . has gone further than anyone else in sorting out the truths and lies of the life, the skills and the insight and the self-deceptions of the work." "A fluent biography of the great director, a frequently rotten guy but one whose artistic independence and standards of film morality never failed." -- The New York Times Book Review; "Hawks's life, until now rather an enigma, has been put into focus and made one with his art in Todd McCarthy's wise and funny Howard Hawks." -- The Wall Street Journal; "Excellent . . . a respectful, exhaustive, and appropriately smartass look at Hollywood's most versatile director." -- Newsweek. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

About as thorough as we're likely to get.
Todd McCarthy has just about closed the book on Howard Hawks.It isn't that there is no more to be told about Hawks, particularly about his private life, it's that for one reason or another -- death or discretion -- no one is going to tell it.

"Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood" gives us everything we wanted to know about Hawks' professional life, his deals with the studios, his treatment of his performers and crew, and then it gives us more than we needed to know.I frankly got bogged down in his cross-chases with moguls like Darryl F. Zanuck and idiosyncratic millionaire nuts like Howard Hughes.But it has to be admitted that McCarthy did his homework.My God, what a heap of information on display, and what a Mount Everest of papers and documents and letters and memoranda he must have dug through in order to unearth this stuff, going back all the way to the businesses run by Hawks' grandparents.(Was the business a success?No power on earth could drag the answer from me.)

We also get a reasonably objective picture of Hawks' character.McCarthy is no fawning fan.When Hawks makes a stinker, McCarthy admits it and tries to figure out why.And we get Hawks as a person too.He was, in a word, dull.Dullness, it could be argued, was his most interesting trait.He was dull as the child of a wealthy Midwestern family and he didn't evolve over the trajectory of his life.He didn't even visit Europe until his professional responsibilities required it.Neither did President George W. Bush or Elvis Presley.This lack of curiosity could be called insular American.When you already are certain about things, why challenge yourself?This complacency is reflected in his plots (which he rewrote extensively during shoots) and even his technique.His directorial style is straightforward and scenes are shot from eye level.No razzle dazzle, no furbelows.And he stole from his earlier work shamelessly.He seemed to have two chief motives for making movies.(1) It was "fun", and (2) it made you a lot of money.

Slow in every dimension, he rarely showed anger or any enthusiasm or amusement that required more than a smile for its expression.He gave his old friends and relatives occasional jobs but showed them little affection.If he hired some people repeatedly it was largely because he knew he could rely on them, not because he especially enjoyed their presence.He died in December, 1977.John Wayne spoke (briefly) at Hawks' funeral but hardly anyone else of note showed up.He had always been distant and reserved.

Well -- except in a few regards.As a younger man he enjoyed gambling on horses, which sometimes landed him in considerable debt.He could be relied on to lie in ways that boosted his image.And he did have a few co-workers with whom he appeared to share an unspoken bond.William Faulkner was one.(Hemingway was not.)He and Faulkner were comfortable simply sitting next to each other, silently, except for an occasional drawled remark.

The Australian actor Leo McKern met with Hawks when Kern was being considered for one of the parts. His description of Hawks' drawling interactional style is kind of amusing.

"I have never met anyone who spoke or moved slower; a broad gesture with an arm took so long that it became an effort not to take the eyes from his face and follow its movement like a stoat-thralled rabbit; and yet the word it accompanied . . . 'e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e' . . . lasted as long as the gesture. I believe that it was long ago that he had simply decided that if anyone was going to come down with an ulcer, it was not H. H."

Hawks went through women as if they were going out of style.The one he found most attractive, and took the usual advantage of, conformed to the same generic template -- beautiful, tall, outdoorsy, stylish with appearing to put much effort into it.Lauren Bacall, whom he turned into a star, was emblematic.He was married three times -- once to a woman who suffered from a mood disorder, next to a socialite, finally to a high-maintenance lady less than half his age.

Which brings up a question that in the context of Hawks' life is inevitable.He had all the women he ever wanted.All he had to do was beckon.Yet they didn't remain with him for long, usually leaving of their own accord.So how was he in bed?He was about as dynamic in the sack as he was in his social life.In the 1930s, Jean Harlow expressed an interest in dating Hawks.It was arranged.Later, the panderer passed Harlow on the beach and asked her how it went, and she scowled and pinched her nose.Hawks had no religion or politics, but in turn-of-the-century small-town Indiana, you didn't get too demonstrative about anything.

There isn't much of the author in this biography.I kind of missed the personal touch.McCarthy missed some opportunities for guesses or wisecracks that might have been incisive or richly humorous.Not that anyone would want a tabloid expose, but, I mean, what ABOUT all that supposed homoerotic subtext in Hawks' work?

Anyway, I got through the book, and although it has its longueurs, it includes just about everything you might want to know about Howard Hawks, one of America's iconic film directors -- a superb story teller.

Hawks Biography Depicts a Sphinxlike Director of Good Movies
As a native Hoosier I was prepared to like Howard Hawks. Hawks was born into relative luxury in Goshen, Indiana. He was raised
in Pasedena, graduated with an engineering degree from Cornell,
served briefly in World War I and rose to directorial fame in
silent film.
Hawks wed three times. Wife one was Athole the daughter of
the lovely and nice Norma Shearer. His second wife "Slim"was a
social climbing fashion plate whose nickname was used by Lauren
Bacall in To Have and Have Not with Bogey. His third wife Dee
was an aspiring actress who wed the older Hawks to achieve a life of comfort. Hawks was a womanizer throughout his life who was unfaithful and often cruel in his dealings with women.
Repugnant!
Hawks was also a gambler losing fortunes and also known as a drinker of note matching bourbons with such buddies as William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and Gary Cooper. His closest friend was famed director Victor Fleming the director of Gone With the Wind and other classics.
Why then spend almost 700 pages on this taciturn, egocentric,
cruel man? Simply put -the great movies he directed. Hawks is
known for such classics as Dawn Patrol; Sergeant York; To Have and Have Not; the Big Sleep. Classic westerns directed by Hawks include Red River with John Wayne and Rio Bravo with the Duke.
Sophisticated comedy delivered at torrid rates of dialogue verbniage include His Girl Friday with Cary Grant and Rosalind
Russell. Grant also stared in Hawks's Only Angels Have Wings
and "I Was a Male War Bride" with Ann Sheridan. My personal
favorite of the great director are "To Have and Have Not" and
"The Big Sleep" with Bogey and Bacall.
On and on I could go listing the classics making this man's
oeuvre impressive; his influence on younger directors and his
storytelling skills reasons to celebrate the genius of HWH!
Movie books like this one could be boring to someone who tires of reading countless pages on the making of each movie, the financing of the films and the often legal troubles Hawks engaged in against such powerful moguls as Mayer. Warner and
Zanuck. To those of us who enjoy learning about the golden age of Hollywood they are glorious glimpses in the story of Tinseltown.
Hawks was a man of action enjoying sports, auto racing and
even croquet! He loved horses, bourbon, babes and making films!
Hawks was no intellectual and admired he-men like Wayne. If we
look at America we see the vision of HOward Hawks making an impression for generations of filmgoers. His films never won an
Oscar but his ability to excell in many genres from Westerns to
light romance to war/adventure tales is admirable.
McCarthy gets a good grade for showing us Hawks in all his
glory and all his greedy desire to seize life by the neck!

"Good Enough"
This is a very good book.Hawks apparently left no papers, and some aspects of his life are undocumented.(For example, McCarthy keeps mentioning Hawks' great friendship with Gary Cooper, but because of both men being dead and no documentation, Cooper remains a very shadowy presence in this book.Hawks' friendship with William Faulkner gets far more space, since Faulkner left papers.)

So there is not a lot about "the inner Hawks."However, there is a lot about Hawks' films.Once the talkies begin, there is a chapter on practically every film Hawks made.I was fascinated by the stories behind the films, how long it took some films to get made (Hatari began as an idea for a movie with Cooper), the films Hawks never made (apparently a very traditional vampire film), and his frequent tangles with Howard Hughes.

McCarthy did a lot of research, and he does not uncritically accept the stories Hawks told (frequently told) about his work.So if you like the films of Howard Hawks and are familiar with books such as Hawks on Hawks and Howard Hawks Storyteller, this is a book that you will still get a lot out of.

To use a term from Hawks' films:"This book is good enough."

"There's no `there' there ..."
McCarthy's reach far exceeds his critical grasp in this one-dimensional biography of a Hollywood icon. Like the famous description of 1930s Los Angeles - "there's no `there' there" - McCarthy's superficial account of Hawks' life, times and work is a sprawling, unfocussed mess. Clumsily written and sprinkled with the tongue-twisting Varietyese McCarthy employs at his day job (he's the uber critic at the Hollywood trade paper, usually a very perceptive one), this book is a difficult read as well as a shallow one. The definitive biography of Hawks, whose life was every bit as complex and multi-layered as his films, remains to be written. Whatever his other talents, Mr. McCarthy is no Boswell.

That Others May Live
This is a true life adventure about the Air Force's para jumpers, a group of heroes I've never heard about. In fact almost no one realizes that they are the ones on tv doing all those splashy things.They are the ones thatdove out of the helicopters looking for John F. Kennedy Jr. They are theones who are out there to save floundering people in the ocean. They arethe ones who help with NASA and the space program to dive in the ocean andrescue or support the astronauts and equipment. I always though that thosepeople who did this were the Coast Guard or Navy--no as I havelearned.

What this book does is tell the real life story of a local LongIsland boy Jack Brehm, who winds up trying to make it in life by enteringintothis elite outfit, this fraternity of men even tougher than the NavySeals or the Army Rangers, and does it. It tells the story of theirtraining and the danger of each mission and how regardless of how good youare, regardless of what excellent shape you are in, any mission can be yourlast. The scenario for this real life adventure is supported by a cast thatis Jack Brehm's family. A group of normal rambunctious kids who turn intoteenagers and then adults while their father goes to work each day at thebase and jumps into danger to save others. Then its home to the kids andwife.

The contrast of a cold calculating job where a mistake can easilycause loss of life, and the warmth of the family make a juxtaposition thatis really fascinating.

I loved the book because it was a about a realhero. Someone who risks his life that others may live-and then he goes homeand plays with the kids. Real life! Only for a very few whom we never hearabout unless tragedy strikes.

If you like real life adventure, Irecommend it! ... Read more

Product Description
1996 is the centenary of the birth of Howard Hawks, one of the great directors of American cinema. This anthology collects together writings from around the world on the director of such films as "Bringing up Baby", "The Big Sleep", "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", and "Rio Bravo".Amazon.com Review
It's hard to overrate Howard Hawks, the extraordinary film director whose credits include the classics Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo. Hawks directed Cary Grant in most of his best comedies, and John Wayne in many of his best Westerns. He was instrumental in furthering the careers of Angie Dickinson, James Caan, Jane Russell, and Marilyn Monroe. Fortunately, the critical writing on Hawks is excellent and this book collects the best of it. With essays by Graham Greene, James Agee, Andre Bazin, Jaques Rivette, Robin Wood, Andrew Sarris, Molly Haskell, Hawks's screenwriter Leigh Brackett, Stanley Cavell, and Laura Mulvey, this will surely be the single most important book on Hawks for many years to come. ... Read more

Product Description
A significant and contemporary study of director Howard Hawks by influential film critic Robin Wood, reprinted with a new introduction. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Justice on the Plains
Well, Robert Pippin does a pretty thorough job of analyzing three major Westerns that came out of Hollywood, Howard Hawks' "Red River", a kind of "Mutiny on the Bounty"; John Ford's "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence", in which a political career is founded on a lie; and Ford's "The Searchers", which might have been called "What's The Matter With John Wayne Today."

Pippin is a philosopher of note, with a named chair, specializing in such lightweight German thinkers as Hegel and Nietzsche.It's surprising to find that he's able to cover relatively conventional Western movies in as much detail as he does?(Where does he find the time?)He dismisses the B Westerns full of stereotypical heroes and villains but believes that the more ambitious examples of the genre have something to teach us.He's certainly convinced me.Pippin hasn't just watched the three movies and taken notes in the dark.(He throws in a sketch of Nicholas Ray's "The Lusty Men" as a kind of bonus.)He cites some important theoretical literature on movies as well -- Bazin, say, and Warshow and Kitses; and he's not above allusions to theorists in anthropology either, like Levi-Strauss, and that's my field.

I applaud his way of getting directly to the point, when he's not skirting around it.Why, at the end of "The Searchers", does Ethan pick up Debby and cradle her in his arms rather than shoot her dead?Ford's original script had such a tragic scene written in it, and Ford scotched it.Pippin outlines half a dozen or so possible answers without resolving the question he's posed.All the explanations have some plausibility and all may feed into the common channel that produced the events we see on screen but none is itself sufficient.That's ambiguity of a particularly rich sort.

For what it's worth, Pippin's analysis of "The Searchers" suggests that Ford deliberately set us up for a typical John Wayne character, then knee-capped our expectations with enough subtlety that, without thinking about it, we are still able to cast Ethan as a straightforward hero of the old school.The problem with the common public interpretation -- Wayne as hero -- is that we have to do a lot of mental work to "not think about it."The evidence of Wayne's brutality and self hatred is everywhere in the film.He's an outright racist, for instance.Yes, the butchery of his brother and family intensifies his bitterness, but he was a racist BEFORE he had that excuse.He dislikes his companion, Jeffrey Hunter, for being one eighth Cherokee."A fella could mistake you for a breed."He wears the remnants of a Confederate uniform.He carries fresh gold coins without explaining where they came from.He chooses to ride off and kill Comanche raiders rather than stay and protect the woman he loves.He goes berserk and kills as many buffalo as possible.He shoots three men in the back.He shoots the eyes out of an Indian corpse.He scalps a Comanche's dead body.He's willing to kill Hunter in order to get at Debby.Until the climax, he's thoroughly committed to killing his own innocent niece because she's been with the Indians who kidnapped her as a child.

Nor, with the exception of Jeffrey Hunter, does the Western community oppose his murderous intentions.Even the virginal, desperate-to-be-married Lauri, played by Vera Miles, angrily tells Hunter not to interfere with Ethan's plans to murder his niece.Let Ethan "put a bullet through her head" because Debby is just "the leavings of some buck."In the end, when Ethan brings Debby back, the community shuts him out.They don't scorn him.They just forget about him and he wanders off thankless.

I enjoyed Pippin's analysis of the three films.I was hoping to learn a bit more about philosophy than I did.As a philosophical ignoramus I needed a better understanding of how political philosophy provides a template for our grasp of the issues involved.(Most of the philosophical stuff shows up in the end notes, without much in the way of description.)The first encounter with Carl Schmitt is parenthetical -- something is described as "even Schmittian."Well, who is Carl Schmitt?I never heard of him.By the end of the book I had the crudest idea.It would have been useful if Pippin had stopped at the first mention of Schmitt (and the dozen other philosophers he alludes to, like Rawls and Nuzick, and given us a brief, relevant sketch of their ideas and their application to the films under scrutiny -- a kind of Kindergarten, A, B, C, approach.And, given my own background, I would have thought that Max Weber's typology of authority -- traditional, charismatic, and rational/legal -- might have gotten more attention, though, granted, they don't have much to do with the mythology behind the founding of a society.

My advice to those considering this book is to forget about philosophy and treat the book as an insightful analysis of three noteworthy and ambitious films that treat the founder myths necessary in keeping us together in a community, despite the rifts in that community.Did you know that George Washington chopped down the cherry tree and confessed, "I did it"?(He didn't.)Maybe "mythos" would have been a more apt analytical tool -- the alpha stories that explain how this nation of ours got started, regardless of the ratio of fact to fiction. ... Read more

Product Description
Published to coincide with the centenary of his birth, this is an examination of the personal concerns which Howard Hawks brought to his films, and which enabled him to stamp his distinctive signature on what once appeared to be a random assortment of genre pieces. Hawks's discussion of his working methods in this frequently irreverent book represents a master class in the practical art of film direction. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

One of the Best Interview Books
Even if you have seen Hawks interviewed on "The Men Who Made the Movies," or have read other interviews with him, HAWKS ON HAWKS is still quite interesting and enjoyable.If you need to understand the essence of Hawks quickly, this is the book to read.We get Hawks' account of his career, the moguls he dealt with, the stars he liked and disliked, his thoughts about movies after he became inactive.Todd McCarthy's Howard Hawks The Gray Fox of Hollywood is a more thorough portrait of the man, and it is good to check Hawks' stories against the research in that book, but HAWKS ON HAWKS is still very charming.

A True Master
Overlooked for years by the Hollywood establishment, today Howard Hawks is remembered as one of the cinema's greatest artists.The candid interviews contained in this book are funny, insightful and just plain enjoyable. Hawks discusses Bogart, Wayne, Bacall, and numerous other actors he workedwith during his career, as well as commenting on his most famous filmsincluding Red River, The Big Sleep, and Bringing Up Baby.Especiallynoteworthy are the sections where he discusses the "HawksianWoman", the Western and his fellow director and friend John Ford.Amust for Hawks' fans. ... Read more

Product Description
Howard Hawks (1896–1977) is one of America’s great film directors. During a career that spanned fifty years and produced more than forty films, this writer, producer, and director made highly successful movies and managed to maintain remarkable artistic control during a time when studio moguls usually ruled. Hawks conquered virtually every genre, including action/adventure, comedy, western, film noir, gangster, science fiction, and musical films.

The remarkable diversity of his work may have kept Hawks from being as easily recognized as his contemporaries Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford. Hawks brought a unique stamp to all of his films by mixing dramatic and comedic elements, manipulating gender conventions, emphasizing story and dialogue, and eschewing cinematic trickery and sentimentality. His classic oeuvre includes films such as Scarface, Only Angels Have Wings, His Girl Friday, Sergeant York, Bringing Up Baby, The Big Sleep, Red River, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and Rio Bravo.

This collection of interviews takes the reader from talks with his admirers in the French press to revealing discussions late in his life. By his own admission, Hawks was above all a storyteller. These interviews overflow with entertaining anecdotes and embellishments. Howard Hawks: Interviews is a diverse collection offering valuable access to the life and career of one of the most fiercely independent filmmakers in the history of Hollywood. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Grey Fox in Winter
I have read many books on Hawks, and I enjoy "Hawks on Hawks," very much.

This book, however, turned out to be interesting in a surprising way.Most of these interviews come from the late Sixties and early Seventies, when Hawks' career was ending.You can see Hawks putting a brave face on his late work, glad for the chance to be working, but once his career is over, he assesses those films very clearly.Also of interest is that the book shows how the first generation of film students came to Hawks, seeking his input on the political struggles of the era and the emerging women's movement.Seeing the clash between their expectations and Hawks' opinions is almost a movie in itself.

Also, Hawks expresses himself vigorously about other directors, something I hadn't really seen before.(He is especially harsh on post-WWII Capra.)

So even if you have read "Hawks on Hawks," "Howard Hawks Inteviews" will surprise you and give you a fuller portrait of the man behind all those terrific movies. ... Read more

Product Description
Bringing Up Baby (1938) is the essence of thirties screwball comedy. It is also quintessential Howard Hawks, treating many of the director's favorite themes, particularly the loving war between the sexes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Everything's Going to be All Right.....
To start off, i happen to be OBSSESSED with Bringing Up Baby. I have the movie at least one hundred times, and can quote the entire script. So, you can imagine how thrilled i was, while browsing the cinema section in my local bookstore, to find an entire book devoted to my favorite movie of time.I immediately devoured it. The book contains the script (which is useful if you miss some of the rapid-fire dialogue in the film), as well as essays and the story the film is based on. i LOVED it.it gave me new incite to the quintessential screwball comedy.i highly recommend it to anyone who loves Bringing up Baby. ... Read more